Ground Source Heat Pumps - Focus

My best friend left me.

We both finished our time in the Army and then he headed off to medical school to put a far enough distance between himself and any war - as far as he could get.

Now he lives in Shangri La.

Or New Zealand as it's sometimes called.

It's a Shangri La for Heat Pump fans, where they started being adopted as alternative heating for houses at scale as far back as 2008.

We talk twice a week still, and my bestie cannot get his head around why the UK is still wedded to gas boilers.

Lets' just imagine for a moment, the UK could get where NZ is at. (Cue dream sequence....)

What is happening in the world of ground source heat pumps here? Whilst demand for heat pumps in Europe grows, the best port of call for a state of the market is at the National Motorcycle Museum near Solihull.

Which is where we came to the Focus Day for the Ground Source Heat Pump Association the GSHPA - to find out.

The CEO, Ken Gordon made some key points surrounding the imminent legislation regarding heat pumps, which will make adoption faster easier and more attractive to both investors and users;

Whilst this legislation is useful, another attendee highlighted work needed elsewhere in the heat pump sector.

Paul Leedham from Matrix Energy started his chat with some interesting context. Pulling up a map of the manufacturing facilities of ground source heat pumps in Europe.

Paul demonstrated the colossal scale of production underway in Germany versus the teensy winsy facilities manufacturing here in the UK.

The meat of his presentation talked through the certification schemes and intense work being done by him and a team up with MCS to advance the adoption of training in colleges in the UK.

You wouldn't know this, but it's better value for a college now to run a ground source heat pump course than a gas boiler course.

The final word from the day came from GSHPA Chair, Laura Bishop. We secured this exclusive interview with her so you could hear what she had to say;

So there you have it, there is hope. But.

There is a dangerous place that retrofit and refurbishment specialists put themselves in sometimes.

Wishing that technical solutions can solve the misdeed of our carbon hungry past is called 'techno optimism'.

There been plenty of high level discussion indicating that techno optimism can stifle carbon reduction activities as well as the adoption of new energy solutions.

The Ground Source Heat Pump Association is not a techno optimist group. They are not deluded, in fact I'd say they are being very patient.

With members experienced in drilling, retrofitting, training, installing, constructing whole energy systems. Heat pumps are being hindered to date by a legislative road block.

Tilted towards gas, the balance of power in the country must surely be due a nudge, a final tipping point towards the realisable future of a heat generation system that vastly outperforms GHG. I think it's time. Don't you?

There is the future, that doesn't need to be a dream, where heat pumps are everywhere in the UK, and we'll wonder why we even used gas.